I Feel Like The Old Man In The Tanker’s Belly In ‘Waterworld’
We’re all trapped, in one way or another
I get asked, “How are you?” all the time, and it would annoy me more if I wasn’t also asking others the same empty question. I don’t expect answers because I don’t usually have an answer. How am I? Jesus Christ, seriously?
I don’t really want to dwell on the last year, but it sucked. The pandemic was a nightmare. I don’t know anyone who wasn’t touched by the plague, just 12 grueling months of loss and fear and anger.
How am I? Well, I’m watching a lot of movies, thanks for asking. I feel disconnected. Alone. I feel like… like… I’m trapped in the midnight guts of an ancient oil tanker helmed by a gang of post-apocalyptic marauders on jet skis, my only purpose in life measuring the crude and hollering the amount left when asked.
Yes. I think that perfectly sums up my current emotional state. Isolated. Not in control. Sunlight makes me blink. I feel like the old man in the tanker’s belly in one of my favorite movies, Waterworld. Kevin Costner’s 1995 post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic has become a sort of punchline, a bloated bomb that was once the most expensive movie in history. It is, actually, incredible.
